‘Patrick’s a unicorn’: Mahomes’ intellectual skills are what make him unique (2024)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Every prominent member of the Kansas City Chiefs has watched and rewatched the moment that began their thrilling comeback victory over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 54.

Andy Reid, the future Hall of Fame coach, has the design of the play — Gun, trey right, three jet, chip wasp, Y funnel — on one of his newest T-shirts. General manager Brett Veach, who has framed artwork of the play in his home, has watched the play more than 100 times, always marveling at what led to the play’s result, an impressive 44-yard completion. The man who threw the ball, superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes, not only remembers everything that led to such a career-defining highlight, but he also knows how and why he was the person who suggested perhaps the most memorable play in the franchise’s history.

The more Mahomes has reflected on the play, the less he thinks about what his gifted right arm accomplished to stun the 49ers. He instead considers the play one of many mental breakthroughs from last season that proved his steady advancement toward becoming a legendary quarterback.

“You have to have the perfect scenario,” Mahomes said, “for that play to work.”

The situation — a 3rd-and-15 from the Chiefs’ 35-yard line while trailing 10 points in the fourth quarter — is a dire one for most NFL quarterbacks. But during the 49ers’ challenge before the play, Mahomes was able to process the scenario and solve one of the sport’s hardest equations to put the Chiefs in an advantageous position.

He did this in four seconds.

With the NFL Films cameras on him, Mahomes began a conversation with offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy and backup quarterback Matt Moore. Mahomes then looked back at the field, his brain visualizing one of the Chiefs’ 300-plus plays. He turned back to Bieniemy to ask a question: “Do we have time to run Wasp?”

On 3rd & 15… @PatrickMahomes to @Cheetah! 😱 #ChiefsKingdom

📺: #SBLIV on FOX
📱: NFL app // Yahoo Sports app pic.twitter.com/9jKaUgio82

— NFL (@NFL) February 3, 2020

In calling for the play, Mahomes calculated that his offensive linemen could block the 49ers’ fierce pass rushers just long enough for a deep pass. Based on his film study, Mahomes knew the 49ers weren’t going to blitz. And Mahomes knew star receiver Tyreek Hill, the league’s fastest player, needed at least four seconds to get open when running a 25-yard “dangle” route, a double-route that combines a deep cross and a corner.

“That will live on forever,” Mahomes said of his superb play call, the equivalent of calling his shot.

Mahomes and the Chiefs, however, believe more such plays will occur this season. As the Chiefs begin their quest — starting with Thursday’s opener against the Houston Texans — to become repeat champions, one of the most difficult feats in professional sports, Mahomes fully understands he’s entering the prime of his already remarkable career. He believes another improvement in his performance in his fourth season will be the byproduct of his mental progress, perhaps giving the Chiefs their greatest schematic advantage yet.

A month after the Super Bowl, Mahomes said as much to a group of celebrities when he appeared on HBO’s “The Shop,” explaining that he didn’t fully know how to read opposing defenses, and identify certain tendencies, until midway through last season.

When the 2018 NFL MVP & 2019 Super Bowl MVP…

who has thrown 89 TDs in 2 seasons…

who was the fastest player to 7,500 passing yards in NFL history…

tells you he just started to learn how to read defenses in MID 2019!!! 👀 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/tpWESckzWv

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) March 6, 2020

Reid, an offensive innovator, had already built a potent offense when Mahomes became the starter two years ago. Mahomes, though, bolstered Reid’s offense with his rare collection of skills — arm strength, vision, mobility, creativity and improvisation — in racking up 50 touchdown passes in 2018. In his 29 years in the NFL, with 22 as a head coach, Reid has helped develop several star quarterbacks, including Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb, Michael Vick and Alex Smith.

When considering all the tasks and responsibilities placed on the position, Reid knows the truth when comparing Mahomes to his previous quarterbacks when they began their fourth season.

“I’d probably tell you he’s ahead,” Reid said of Mahomes. “Brett Favre ran the option in high school. Pat Mahomes (threw) the football (almost) every play in college. In high school, he was doing the same type of thing.

“But on top of that, you get this kid that wants to be the best, is willing to work at it, wants you to give them information and is very intelligent. And he’s a good leader. He has the full package, but you’re still going to see growth.”

Every important person in Mahomes’ life agrees that he has always been a prodigy, someone whose thoughts, ideas and problem-solving ability are advanced for his age, and that’s still the case with the 24-year-old.

Yet Mahomes provides an added bonus: He has excelled in using his role and voice to motivate his teammates to be at their best with him during the most critical moments of games. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt acknowledged after last season that Mahomes’ ability to know exactly what to say to his teammates, especially before the team rallied from double-digit deficits in three playoff games, astonishes him just as much as the imaginative completions.

Mahomes knew every word he said in the huddle helped the Chiefs execute their wasp play. He first instructed his teammates to stay in the huddle longer than usual. Once he told everyone the play, Mahomes spent a few seconds encouraging Hill, who misplayed a ball in the third quarter that led to an interception. Then Mahomes looked and pointed at receiver Sammy Watkins, non-verbally asking him to work hard to attract multiple 49ers. In practices before the Super Bowl, Mahomes didn’t throw the ball much to Watkins, who ran a deep square-in.

“I knew, in that situation, he was going to be far enough downfield that he would be around the first-down (marker) as well,” Mahomes said of Watkins. “If that corner (Emmanuel Moseley) didn’t sink off, I was able to have a guy I could throw to that could make a play in a big-time (moment). I just wanted to make sure he knew that, that he’s as big a part of the play as anybody. He got guys to cover him and got Tyreek open.”

Mahomes backpedaled an additional 9 yards from the shotgun after the ball was snapped to create enough time for his offensive linemen and Hill. Then Mahomes launched the ball, which traveled 57.1 yards in the air, his longest completed pass by air distance of the season.

When Veach rewatches the play, he believes it’s the best example of Mahomes fusing his exceptional athleticism with his mental mastery.

“We take it for granted now because he has an uncanny feel for the game,” Veach said of the Chiefs. “His awareness is at such an elite level that it ties all these things together. He’s able to have all these people and all this pressure and all this stimulus around him and still play with that mindset, like he’s back in the backyard.”

Amidst the Chiefs’ celebration after the Super Bowl, Mahomes made sure to hug and thank his parents, Pat and Randi, for how they raised him and for being the first ones to notice his keen intellect.

The first time it was apparent to those who knew him that Mahomes was different intellectually, he was at Shea Stadium in New York.

It was in the summer of 2000, likely a few months before he turned 5 (on Sept. 17). Mahomes spent plenty of time that year at the New York Mets’ former ballpark watching his father, a veteran right-handed reliever, pitch. After shagging balls in the outfield during the team’s batting practice, Patrick and his mother usually watched the games in a lounge for family members and friends of players. To this day, Patrick still recalls the room being filled with toys and activities, which enticed and maintained the attention of most children.

“I would just sit there and watch the game,” he said. “I was so interested in seeing the game, seeing what was going on and looking at the count and I’d understand how the pitcher was pitching.

“Now watching my little sister and watching other kids that other guys have around, I don’t see other kids thinking that same way as I did when I was a little kid.”

Bobby Valentine remembers Pat Mahomes as a reliable reliever with a good smile and the athleticism to play center field. He knows Pat's son as this: "The best player I’ve ever seen on a football field.”

How the Mets, Jeter and baseball made Mahomes: https://t.co/4LSqiXpgZD

— Rustin Dodd (@rustindodd) January 29, 2020

By that summer, Pat and Randi let young Patrick learn as much as he could about baseball and what made professional ballplayers successful. Mahomes asked questions in the clubhouse, he watched some of the superstars of that era — Derek Jeter, Mike Piazza and Alex Rodriguez, among others — go through their pregame routines and he spent hours in the outfield trying to catch each fly ball in a different, creative way.

Pat and Randi learned quickly that Patrick always wanted to challenge himself to see what he could accomplish, whether it was by learning to play as many sports as he could or by allowing him to be in youth leagues with and against older children. Randi nicknamed Patrick “The Energizer Bunny.” Yet she and Pat watched their son pitch shutouts, make game-winning shots in basketball and score goals in bunches in soccer because he grasped the strategy and mechanics of the sports quicker than other children.

Here's your reminder that @PatrickMahomes has ALWAYS been clutch: an incredible buzzer beater at age 8. 💥pic.twitter.com/0lyjPUgVma

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) May 23, 2020

In addition to his parents, Patrick has been mentored by LaTroy Hawkins, his godfather, who pitched in the major leagues for 21 seasons. The surprise, Hawkins said, was when Patrick, either with schoolwork or as an athlete, had to be taught a particular lesson a second time.

“His mind is incredible,” Hawkins said of Mahomes. “He doesn’t think like other athletes. He’s in that upper echelon. (Michael) Jordan is my favorite athlete, and (his) mentality is completely different from everybody else’s. That was recognized in Patrick at a very young age.

“Telling him to study like you tell other kids to study is, like, a waste of time. Just let him see it and he has it. His mind is so broad that it’s amazing that he’s able to keep up with everything.”

One reason is because Patrick Mahomes has a photographic memory.

Pat, Randi and Hawkins wanted to help cultivate that trait in Mahomes by empowering him to always think in a creative manner. Success, they told him, could be captured in many ways. After many of his games, Mahomes would be interviewed by his parents and Hawkins, the trio asking him questions, big and small, for him to have better comprehension on how to improve. Even Mahomes sometimes can’t pinpoint the exact reason why he became so smart so young.

“It’s just kind of a mixture of everybody that I’ve been around in my entire life,” he said. “It’s hard to explain. It’s how I’ve always thought. It’s still the same today.”

Little League ➡️ @TexasTechFb ➡️@Chiefs
.@PatrickMahomes5 just loves erasing 0s from the scoreboard.#LLAlumni #ChiefsKingdom #TBT pic.twitter.com/4SqZbJAWcm

— Little League (@LittleLeague) September 27, 2018

In fourth grade, Mahomes was paired with Bobby Stroupe, his trainer who is the founder and president of ATHLETE Performance Enhancement Center (APEC). In more than 20 years, Stroupe has trained close to 30 professional athletes, in six different sports, from when they were in elementary school. Mahomes, though, has always been a unique athlete for Stroupe.

The first principle of their training sessions was creativity. Almost every drill and workout needed to create an environment that encouraged Mahomes to use his imagination since his creativity was further developed than his fundamentals.

“I’m not a quarterback coach,” Stroupe said. “Most people look at something and say, ‘OK, the way this works is A to B. Patrick’s brain doesn’t really work that way. He’s a problem-solver, but he’s open. He doesn’t have any bias on how the problem is solved.”

Together, they agreed on the same philosophy when Mahomes wanted to be Whitehouse (Texas) High’s quarterback for his junior season: He didn’t have to be textbook or robotic to lead his team to victory.

One of the best discoveries Mahomes made on the field is that extending plays by scrambling felt similar to when he was on the basketball court as Whitehouse’s point guard. Eventually, as Mahomes learned, one of his teammates would almost always get open. Before Mahomes commanded Whitehouse’s air-raid offense, the team had relied on prototypical pocket passers who could complete throws in rhythm within the structure of how the play is designed.

Stroupe worked to nurture Patrick’s arm strength while refining his ability to make off-platform passes so that the techniques could feel comfortable during games. In a 2012 game against John Tyler High (Tyler, Texas), Stroupe watched Mahomes do what has become almost expected these days, a scrambling, one-footed deep pass for a long completion.

“I heard a random dad say, ‘He needs to just throw the ball and quit running around!’” Stroupe said of that night. “I thought, ‘You just have no idea what you just saw.’ It’s funny what the eyes see. Some people think something’s a mess, and you see something extraordinary.”

“Functional training” w/ @PatrickMahomes #MVPat #teamAPEC #ChiefsKingdom pic.twitter.com/sWjvmyvWLb

— Bobby Stroupe (@bobbystroupe) April 7, 2020

Stroupe knows athletes must be confident to succeed. But Mahomes is different, Stroupe said, because he has never become arrogant. During his college career at Texas Tech, Mahomes disagreed with analysts and NFL evaluators who believed his uncommon playing style — he was labeled as a high-risk gunslinger — would be the reason he wouldn’t become a star. Mahomes told Stroupe he wanted to keep pushing the limits of what a quarterback can do. Behind their calculated decision, Stroupe has yet to find Mahomes’ maximum capabilities, both physical and intellectual.

Mahomes, meanwhile, has always made his most passionate plans work.

“Honestly, I mean, I’ve thought I was going to be a professional athlete since the moment I can remember,” Mahomes said. “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work and that you put in the time, you could be here, in the NFL or whatever professional sport that is. I’m not trying to sound co*cky or too confident, but that’s just how my mindset has always been.

“It’s gotten me to where I’m at today.”

Since he joined the Chiefs in 2017, Mahomes and Stroupe have given each offseason a theme. Last year, their sessions were about resiliency. The idea was for Mahomes to train in an unorthodox manner that ensured he would move better around and out of the pocket in December, January and early February.

Mahomes’ inspiration wasn’t from a former NFL star quarterback — he wanted to follow the mentality of an NBA legend.

“I look back at guys like Kobe Bryant,” Mahomes said. “They talk about how they practice these shots for the one moment that they have to do them. You can do that in football, as far as preparing yourself for every single look.”

Using pneumatic resistance equipment, Stroupe can track Mahomes’ rotational and lower-body power in coordination with the Chiefs’ training staff. Stroupe can give Mahomes a specific number of repetitions to reach — with different percentages of his maximum lift or with how quickly he can finish the drill — when doing a power squat. Stroupe has always seen Mahomes reach the goal.

“He’s done it so many times in front of so many people, it just blows their mind,” Stroupe said of Mahomes. “That’s one of the best ways to elevate Patrick. Put something in front of him that he’s not certain that he can do, and he’s going to elevate himself and go get it.”

Mahomes and Stroupe felt they accomplished their goals before last season began. Neither man, though, anticipated that Mahomes would sustain a left ankle injury, one that Stroupe felt was more significant than most people realized, in Week 1 of the regular season. Suddenly, the theme of the season for Mahomes was about showing his resilience.

In the Chiefs’ seventh game against the Denver Broncos, he sustained the biggest injury of his career: a dislocated right kneecap.

While Mahomes missed two starts, Reid was in awe of how he continued to work, spending hours watching film while receiving as much treatment as he could from the Chiefs’ medical staff. When Mahomes’ returned to the field in Week 10 vs. the Titans, he didn’t scramble around the pocket or run to gain additional rushing yards. But in rewatching the film from that game — which was the last time the Chiefs lost — Reid could tell Mahomes’ thought process when progressing through his reads was improving.

By the middle of December, Mahomes had regained his usual athletic form. He threw for 340 passing yards and two touchdowns in the snow in a home victory over the Broncos. Yet one play in the game foreshadowed to the coaching staff that Mahomes was going to start overwhelming opposing defenses with his mind as much as feet and right arm. On a 3rd-and-7, the Broncos showed a Cover-2 look before blitzing two cornerbacks and a linebacker along with a variation of a Cover-0 in the secondary. Mahomes recognized the blitz, backpedaled an additional 7 yards from the shotgun and was still able to connect with receiver Mecole Hardman on a pass near the sideline for a 10-yard completion.

The lone time Mahomes had seen the Broncos unleash such a blitz earlier last season was against the Indianapolis Colts, and quarterback Jacoby Brissett threw an incompletion on the third-down play.

“The hours he spends going over the plays when he’s away from the building, it’s a tribute to the kid and he’s completely dedicated to it,” Reid said of Mahomes. “He’s blessed with great vision. He has a mind that is decisive with decision-making. He’s blessed with this, but he also works tremendously hard at the job.”

Caught this nice moment with Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. #Chiefs — love how Coach Reid (face shield and all) eases in and Mahomes stops to listen for a bit. Great to see from the HC and QB. pic.twitter.com/Feclp21LoE

— Harold R. Kuntz (@HaroldRKuntz3) August 23, 2020

Another mental trick Mahomes employed was positioning his head in a certain direction to psychologically manipulate linebackers and safety in the middle of the field. On some plays, Mahomes appeared to stare at a defender, sometimes as long as a second, to get that player to freeze before passing the ball to an open receiver. He also completed 12 of his 16 pass attempts for 255 yards on third-down plays when the Chiefs needed at least 15 yards for a first down. Three of those completions resulted in touchdowns.

In the Chiefs’ two playoff victories prior to the Super Bowl, Mahomes played the best football of his life, which didn’t surprise Stroupe, Reid or Bieniemy. Fully healthy, and with more experience against certain defensive strategies, Mahomes made the proper protection calls and often thwarted the man and zone coverages the Texans and Tennessee Titans used by finding the most favorable passing matchup.

Mahomes was the Chiefs’ leading rusher in both games while producing 615 passing yards, eight touchdowns and zero turnovers. Even when the Titans called one of their best defensive plays, double-teaming Hill and star tight end Travis Kelce, Mahomes became aware that his legs were the Chiefs’ best answer, as he escaped the pocket and evaded multiple defenders for a sensational 27-yard rushing touchdown.

“We didn’t see him playing good football for him again until the playoffs,” Stroupe said. “That’s just a fact.”

Big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games 💪 pic.twitter.com/ZC8Ts5dHqK

— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 19, 2020

One of Mahomes’ favorite moments in the postseason was when his mind, in the middle of a play against the Texans, realized that Kelce was going to adjust his route before he actually made a cutback toward the middle of the field. Mahomes released the ball before Kelce turned back to make the reception, both players ad-libbing at the same time. When the offense returned to the sideline after scoring a touchdown, Kelce approached Mahomes to ask a question: How did Mahomes know what his teammate was doing at the exact moment as he was doing it?

“I really didn’t,” Mahomes said, looking back on the play. “I just did it. I just let it go. That’s just the instincts that I have.”

In his last three games, Mahomes performed at such a brilliant level that he guided the Chiefs, through his vocal leadership and intelligence, to improbable victories. They erased a 24-0 deficit against the Texans in one quarter. The Chiefs won all three games after trailing by 10 or more points in the postseason, a first in NFL history. And with quarterback legends — such as Tom Brady, Joe Montana, John Elway and Peyton Manning — looking on, Mahomes orchestrated a 21-point barrage in the final nine minutes against the 49ers, the most points ever in the fourth quarter of a Super Bowl.

Earlier this year, as they began another phase of their training sessions, Mahomes gave Stroupe a gift.

The item was one of Mahomes’ game-worn jerseys from last season. Mahomes’ written message wasn’t about their workouts or how Stroupe improved his body over the years to help him become a champion.

“Thanks,” Mahomes wrote, “for believing in me.”

Three days before the Super Bowl, Kurt Warner presented his theory on Mahomes. As a Hall of Fame quarterback, a two-time MVP winner and a Super Bowl champion with the St. Louis Rams, Warner felt he had watched enough film of Mahomes, in just 35 games, to make a rather bold statement.

“I wonder if we’ve never seen an entire package like what we’ve seen with Patrick,” Warner said then. “He’s got the freaky athleticism and arm talent, like Aaron Rodgers. He’s got the ability to be accurate and play in the pocket, like other great quarterbacks. The thing for me that separates him, too, is his ability to creatively see the game, which is very unique. Only a few guys have been able to do that.

“There’s the potential for him to be the most complete quarterback we may have ever seen in this game.”

Warner predicted that Mahomes was going to have an incredible offseason this summer, a time in which the Chiefs could continue to explore and expand their offensive playbook. Anything, Warner said, could be possible for Mahomes.

Since Patrick Mahomes entered the NFL in 2017, Mahomes leads all qualified QBs in expected points added per dropback (0.26), a measure of passing efficiency.@PatrickMahomes has been most efficient throughout his career in several of the most difficult passing situations: pic.twitter.com/W4333pYMKy

— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) July 6, 2020

Before Mahomes returned to work for the Chiefs’ offseason program, the NFL had to alter its business amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Chiefs held remote meetings and Mahomes gave his input to Reid on new plays from his new home in Dallas.

By staying in the Dallas area for most of the spring and early summer, Mahomes and Stroupe spent more time together than usual. One of the themes for their sessions was on adaptability. Stroupe’s force-vector training focused on Mahomes being able to have power and strength in at least eight different directions — eight different lunges, hops, leaps and jumps. Then Mahomes worked to polish eight different directional throws.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find an athlete in any professional sport that has improved as much as (Mahomes) has in the last six years,” Stroupe said. “This is as lean and as athletic as he’s ever been. I saw him beat a linebacker in a 10-yard sprint that ran a 4.5 (40-yard dash) at the combine.”

An unconventional drill put Mahomes in position to make what Stroupe calls locomotion throws. That is when Mahomes passes the ball in an asymmetrical movement pattern, as one side of his body does one motion while the other side of his body does something else.

When Stroupe shouted to instruct that the ball be released to a receiver, he then timed Mahomes — who either skipped, backpedaled or did a spin move at the time — to see how quick the ball left his right hand.

“This creates a sense of urgency, and he’s got to creatively solve the problem,” Stroupe said of Mahomes. “When we start doing those things, and mixing it up with running backward and turning and throwing to a target you haven’t seen, and you start making him do leaps in eight different directions and throw the ball in the leap, then it becomes a lot more second-nature and it’s feeding that talent and those gifts that are already there.

“I’ve trained NFL quarterbacks that I would never do those drills with. Look, Patrick’s a unicorn.”

Locomotion throws on audible command, then has to find hands up receiver. Create natural arm slots that are adapted to specific movement patterns and velocities. “Conditioning” @PatrickMahomes pic.twitter.com/xtBjatwzQc

— Bobby Stroupe (@bobbystroupe) March 11, 2020

During the Chiefs’ training camp, several members of the team recognized that Mahomes showed a greater understanding of the playbook. Mike Kafka, a former NFL quarterback and the Chiefs’ quarterbacks assistant, said Mahomes almost always knows all the multiple answers he has, as counter moves, on plays based on what the opposing defense will present. Several veteran players have seen Reid and Mahomes talk through ideas and new plays so much that the Chiefs’ offense should no longer be labeled as just Reid’s creation.

“You can just tell that wherever he’s been (this past offseason), his mind has been in football,” right tackle Mitchell Schwartz said of Mahomes. “He’s looking really sharp. It’s exciting.”

Similar to Warner, Bieniemy also has a theory as to why Mahomes will continue his metamorphosis as a quarterback this season.

“He’s a great kid, but he’s a competitive prick,” Bieniemy said. “He wants to improve at everything he possibly can improve upon. He just wants to work, and that’s what you love about being around him.”

Beyond attempting to find new ways to throw the ball, or even executing the new plays that illustrate his collaboration with Reid, Mahomes is most eager this season to showcase his enhanced ability to make pre-snap adjustments. No longer does Mahomes just want to display his superiority over his opponents through his physicality or improvisation. He plans to exhibit the newfound mastery he has worked to attain.

“This year should be special, God willing,” Stroupe said of Mahomes. “He’s in a great place mentally.”

(Top photo: Ric Tapia / Associated Press)